Joys of camping

I hope your article (Report, 12 August) makes those contemplating a degree think again. As the stock market plummets and the debt crisis lingers, we are asking young people to take on a staggering £60,000 of debt. This is madness, especially as employers see many degrees as worthless. University is no longer a guaranteed route into the professions, the graduate job market is bleak and the average graduate salary is around £20k – a university education will be financially crippling for many. How does this stimulate economic growth?

• I'm glad Jennifer Leach is experiencing unfettered family fun in her caravan in Wales (Letters, 11 August). No doubt she's also one of those insufferable brutes who smugly insist that wet-weather incarceration with under-fives is the greatest conceivable pleasure and oh what a shame they have to grow up blah blah. Writing from a sodden campsite in north Devon in the company of small sons whose conversation runs to "it's boring" and "it smells of poo", I am firmly with Emma Kennedy (Family, 6 August). It cannot pass quickly enough.

Wealands Bell

Lichfield, Staffordshire

• Michael Bukht (Obituary, 10 August) had a third career to add to his broadcasting and cooking activities. In the mid-1970s, he fitted in an active role as press officer for Save the Children. He commissioned me and my partner to write a pamphlet on vandalism in schools. He then challenged us to test our recommendations in practice. A comprehensive school in Ealing agreed to work with us and, at the end of a vandalism-free term, Michael arranged a Capital Radio disco for the pupils as a reward.

Judith Stone

London

• Where on an e-petition (Sketch, 6 August) is there a place for people to sign up to say that they do not want a proposition discussed?

Jenny Young

North Lancing, West Sussex

• My dad always gave me a gin and tonic when I had period pains (Letters, 11 August); worked a treat.